Device for winding yarn and thread



Jan. 13, 1970 R. TORSELLINI ET L 3,489,360

DEVICE FOR WINDING YARN AND THREAD Filed May 51, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. lo

Jan. 13, 1970 R. TORSELLINI E AL 3,489,360

DEVICE FOR WINDING YARN AND THREAD Filed May 31, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

Jan. 13, 1970 R. TO'RSELLINI ET AL 3,489,360

DEVICE FOR WINDING YARN AND THREAD 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed May 31, 1967 Jan. 13, 1970 R. TORSELLINI ET AL 3,489,360

DEVICE FOR WINDING YARN AND THREAD Filed May 31, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 FIG.4

United States Patent 3,489,360 DEVICE FOR WINDING YARN AND THREAD Renato Torsellini, Milan, and Fermo Comoli, Mercurago di Arona, Italy, assignors to Chatillon Societa Anonima Italiana per le Fibre Tessili Artificiali S.p.A., Milan, Italy, and Comoli Fermo-Officina Meccanica, Mercurago di Arona, Novara, Italy Filed May 31, 1967, Ser. No. 642,409 Claims priority, application Italy, May 30, 1966, 13,120/ 66 Int. Cl. B65h 54/28 US. Cl. 242-43 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention is concerned with accelerating the winding of yarn, thread or the like onto cylindrical bobbins and is based on the discovery that much higher winding speeds may be obtained if the thread is guided by at least one pair of thread guides which are arranged to rotate in opposite directions. One of the guides carries the thread across the Width of the bobbin and releases it at or near the bobbin end at the moment in time when the other thread guide reaches the said bobbin end from the opposite direction. This other bobbin guide then picks up the thread and carries it back across the bobbin, dropping it at or near the bobbin end where it is picked up again by the first bobbin guide which by now has returned to its starting position. A longitudinal bar is provided for guiding the thread to the guides and a cylinder is arranged adjacent the bobbin, furrows being formed in the cylinder to guide the thread to the extreme bobbin ends when the position of the said bar with respect to the thread guide axes so dictates.

The invention relates to a device for winding yarn and thread onto cylindrical bobbins or the like and more particularly to a device for distributing the yarn or thread over such bobbins during winding.

To date, efforts at increasing the output of winding frames have been chiefly concerned with the further development of existing thread collecting members and of the thread delivery member, that is to say, of the thread guide. Technical considerations have however limited such development, practical limits being imposed, for instance, on the rate of oscillation of the thread guide. Various difficulties are in practice encountered, these difficulties being of a constructional and a technological nature. Thus the former preventing, at least when mechanical means are employed as heretofore, any substantial increase in the rate of reciprocation of the thread guide and the latter creates problems in the distribution of the thread over the collecting bobbin, particularly at the point of reversal in the oscillation pattern of the thread guide.

Various attempts have been made at overcoming the disadvantages which arise, these attempts involving for instance the use of cams with furrows of various profile. Furthermore furrows have been cut in the cylinder which drives the bobbin by friction as disclosed by Italian Patent No. 513,697. In accordance with the disclosure of this patent, winding of the thread and yarn on the bobbin is effected by the operation of a thread guide in full synchronism with the movement of the driving cylinder in which furrows are provided which guide the thread. Winding speeds of 850 m./rnin. have been attained with this device but it has now been found that considerably higher speeds even than these can be obtained by using a device according to the present invention.

The present invention consists in a device for winding yarn or thread on bobbins wherein furrows are formed in a cylinder arranged to rotate the bobbin by friction and at least a pair of contra-rotatable thread guides is provided, the furrows and guides together effecting longitudinal displacement of the yarn or thread along the bobbin axis of rotation.

Advantageously, a bar is provided, which bar is arranged to slidingly engage the thread on its movement towards the said thread guides and to perform, during a predetermined period, a movement either towards or away from the rotational axis or axes of the thread guides thereby respectively to cause either an increase or a decrease in the distance of thread travel along the bar.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be clear from the following description, given with reference to the accompanying drawings which are by way of example and in which:

FIGURE 1a is a plan view of the thread guide dropping the thread at the right hand end of the bobbin.

FIGURE 1b is a plan view of the thread guide carrying the thread part-way across the bobbin;

FIGURE 10 is a plan view of the thread guide dropping the thread at the left hand end of the bobbin;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the device;

FIGURE 3 is a side view; and

FIGURE 4 is a front view.

FIGURE 1 is intended to show diagrammatically how two thread guides t1 and t2 operate and the manner in which they alternate in picking up, carrying and dropping a thread T with respect to a bobbin B on Which the said thread is being wound. In FIG. 1 the various arrows indicate the directions of movement ofthe thread guides. The diagram a of FIG. 1 illustrates the stage at which the first thread guide t1 has dropped the thread T, at the right hand end of the bobbin B, the said thread now being picked up, carried and controlled by the second thread guide t2 which is rotating in a contrary direction to the first. The diagram 12 of FIG. 1 illustrates the stage at which the second thread guide 22 has carried the thread half way across the bobbin B and the diagram 0 of FIG. 1 illustrates the stage at which the second thread guide 12 loses control of and drops the thread T which passes to and is picked up again by, the first thread guide 11 which latter is by now coming into action again at the left hand end of the bobbin B.

The operating cycle of the two thread guides will also be clearly seen from FIGURE 2, the thread guides being denoted in this, as in the previous and further figures, by the reference numerals t1 and t2. As shown they are arranged in superposed relationship and each thread guide is of double construction that is to say elongated with a central pivotal mounting and its ends bevelled on the side which will contact and receive the thread T.

When described from the viewpoint of FIG. 2, the thread guide 11 performs an anticlockwise rotation and the thread guide t2 performs a clockwise rotation, the thread T being caused to slide over a bar 3 before being received by a said thread guide. A driving cylinder 4 serves to drive, by friction, the bobbin B on which the thread is wound and the dimensioning and location of the various elements is such that the thread being collected by the said bobbin is free to slide longitudinally over the bar 3. This is best seen from FIG. 3.

The abovementioned arrangements is such that, on rotation, the thread guides t1 and t2 may only engage the thread T after it has passed the bar 3 and that only one thread guide at a time is so positioned as to be able to pick up and carry the thread along the bobbin, the cylinder 4 and the bar 3. Such movement is of course to the right or to the left of FIG. 2 in dependence upon the sense of rotation of the thread guide in question.

When the thread has been carried along the chord subtending the arc of movement of the relevant thread guide,

it is released by the said thread guide at the same time that the other thread guide reaches an operative position.

The driving cylinder 4 is formed at its ends with furrows 6 in which the thread is inserted synchronously under the control of transmission gears connected between the cylinder 4 and the thread guides 11 and 2. The thread is retained by a cusp 7 which is adapted and arranged to lay the said thread correctly on the bobbin B. On release of the thread so described above, the thread (t1 in FIG. 2) which has effected such release continues to rotate and comes into action again at a subsequent stage, the other thread guide t2, which, of course is rotating in a contrary direction to its associated guide t1, engages the thread which has been released momentarily but which is still retained in the cusp 7 on the driving cylinder 4, to carry it along the bar 3 to the opposite end (the left hand end) of the bobbin B where the same movements are performed by the guide t1.

The thread guides t1 and t2 rotate either about one and the same axis or about distinct and separate axes and this latter case is shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings, being visible in FIGS. 2 and 4.

Thus, in FIG. 2 the rotary axes of the two thread guides are displaced along a straight line which lies parallel to the rotational axis of the driving cylinder 4. This construction is advantageous in that, on transfer of the thread from one thread guide tothe other at the bobbin ends, the thread guide which catches the thread will extend further towards the relevant bobbin and cylinder end than the thread guide which is releasing the thread. This will, of course, obviate missing of the thread by the guide,

As shown in FIGURE 4, the rotational axes of the thread guides t1 and 12 are parallel to one another but are not perpendicular to the rotational axis of the driving cylinder 4. The actual angle between the said axis of the driving cylinder 4 and the rotational axes of the thread guides t1 and t2 is denoted in FIG. 4 by e and the size of this angle will depend upon the vertical spacing of the thread guides t1 and 12, with respect to the axis of rotation of the cylinder 4, and the length of their useful stroke. As a result of this inclination 5 the thread guide which is being moved forward at the critical stage of laying the thread into the furrows 6 of the cylinder 4 is separated from the cylinder 4 by a predetermined distance, D for guide t1 and D for guide 12, irrespective of whether it lies over the right or the left hand end of the said driving cylinder 4, and even though the thread guides are associated with two different memberstwhich are arranged in a superposed relationship. The angle ,8 is chosen so that D is equal to D Referring to FIGURE 3 both the drum 4 and the shafts of the said guides 11, 12 are driven by a mainshaft 10 for a synchronous rotation. A cam 12 is carried by the shaft 10 or by any other shaft geared with the latter and has a cam follower, 14 cooperating therewith. The bar 3 is movable horizontally toward and away from axis 16 of the thread guide by being supported by a slidable carriage 18. A lever 20 is centrally fulcrumed at 22 and one end of the lever carries follower 14 while the other end is linked to the carriage 18.,A tension spring 24 acts on the carriage or lever to urge the cam follower into constant engagement with the cam 12. In this manner the bar 3 is reciprocated, for every turn of each of the thread guides or for every small end turns of the latter depending upon the configuration of the cam between a withdrawn position shown in full lines, corresponding to the laps of thread situated at the edge of the bobbin and an advanced position 3' shown in dash lines, in which the bar reduces the effective are of the thread guides thereby producing laps situated inwardly of the bobbin edge.

Therefore the bar 3 is arranged to perform a slight forward movement (away from the thread guide rotational axis or axes) during a predetermined time period, so that the distance of travel of the thread along the bar decreases and the thread does not reach the cusp 7 of the driving cylinder 4. In this case the guide stroke is shortened and the thread does not reach the bobbin edges, As will be evident,. a periodical shortening of the guide strokes will disturb the spirals by which the thread is deposited on the bobbin body and this will eliminate thread accumulations at the bobbin ends so that uniformly compact bobbins may be obtained.

Various modifications are of course possible within the scope of the appended claims. For instance, although the invention has been described with reference to a device having only a single pair of thread guides or two units each carrying a thread guide, the number of thread guides incorporated in a device according to the invention may be larger.

Since the thread guides perform a uniform rotary motion they can be rotated at very high speeds thereby affording winding rates of several thousand meters per minute.

What we claim is:

1. A device for winding yarn or thread on bobbins comprising: rotatable bobbin means, a driving cylinder rotatably mounted adjacent said bobbin means for rotating said bobbin means by frictional engagement therewith an having furrows at each end thereof for guiding the thread, a pair of contra-rotatable thread guides mounted for rotation adjacent said driving cylinder for engaging the thread prior to engagement of the thread with said driving cylinder for moving the thread along the axis of rotation of said driving cylinder between said furrows, bar means extending parallel to the axis of rotation of said driving cylinder for engaging the thread in advance of said thread guides, and means for periodically reciprocating said bar means toward and away from the axis of rotation of said thread guides for varying the location of 3 the thread with respect to the thread guides to thereby vary the distance the thread is moved along the axis of rotation of said driving cylinder by said thread guides.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said contra-rotatable thread guides rotate about an axis inclined with respect to the axis of rotation of said driving cylinder so as to be perpendicular therewith.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein said contra-rotatable thread guides rotate about separate axes.

-4. The device of claim 2 wherein said contra-rotatable thread guides are coaxial.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 834,420 10/ 1906 Taylor. 1,475,525 11/1923 Tober. 2,325,640 1 8/ 1943 Thomas et a1. 2,352,781 7/ 1944 Fletcher et a1. 2,377,771 6/ 1945 Fletcher. 2,365,434 12/ 1944 Reiners et al. 242-43 2,664,249 12/ 1953 Wright 242-43 3,362,652 1/1968 Butterworth. 3,374,961 3/1968 Otsuka et al.

FOREIGN PATENTS 781,945 3/ 1935 France. 423,578 10/ 1933 Great Britain.

STANLEY N. GILREATH, Primary Examiner 

